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Pa. stops unemployment payments to prison inmates

Associated Press

Posted:
01/29/2013 06:18:30 PM EST

HARRISBURG - The Department of Labor & Industry, in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Justice Network, announced a new cross-match system to identify and stop benefit payments to unemployment compensation claimants incarcerated in the state's county prisons.

Estimates by the department indicate annual savings of nearly $12 million to the UC trust fund through a real-time benefits payment stop that occurs when UC claimants are incarcerated in 51 of the 63 counties that operate prisons. This estimate is based on the average size and number of weeks of payments.

JNET is a secure portal used by criminal justice and public safety professionals to access data from local, state and federal agencies. When a new inmate enters a county prison that participates in JNET, the individual's information is automatically compared against the UC rolls maintained by Labor & Industry.

After L&I receives and verifies the report, the individual is immediately removed from active UC benefit status.